


Who's Older - Joe or Danny?

by FanWriter



Category: Blue Bloods (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 13:30:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15775056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanWriter/pseuds/FanWriter
Summary: I saw something on bluebloodstv.wikia.com where one of the users (CarlyRae) is adopting and updating the Blue Bloods blog there (as of 2017) and that any input is welcome. Since I don't have a log-in there, I'll post my 'Joe is older evidence' here. My opinion is that the writers just put down a quick timeline without considering that fans would pay it much attention. Since people started inquiring, they had Frank state in 2 episodes (although I want to say that there was another one) that Joe was the oldest. Honestly, though, this question has been going on for about eight years now - why don't the creators of the show just come out and put it to rest? Or ask Frank - they're his kids, he should know.





	Who's Older - Joe or Danny?

**Author's Note:**

> I've been saving this; thinking that I would add more but nothing is coming to me right now. I may add more later. Right now, I'm just trying to finish up my halfway-done works and post them.
> 
> I probably will add more; it seems like just when I get done with this I figure out something else to add in.

I've read both kinds of stories and from what I've seen on the show I personally think Joe is older for these reasons:

1) When Frank is talking with Danny and Erin in 'All That Glitters' - season 1 episode 20 - he says that when Jamie was born he tried to move Danny and Erin in a room together. Normally, from what I know, is that the oldest kid usually gets their own room while the younger kids share if they have to. By the time Jamie arrives, Joe has already been born. So if Danny was the oldest, wouldn't it be Joe moving in with Erin. If Joe was the oldest, however, then that would explain him having his own room while Danny and Erin had to share - temporarily, at least, since the arrangement worked oh so well.

2) In 'Cursed' - season 6 episode 12 - at the very end when Officer Jill Carpenter asks Frank to tell her about Joe so that she can honor him, as well as her father, by wearing his shield number, Frank agrees and if you listen very closely you'll hear Frank say ''Good cop. First born.''

3) In 'Common Ground' - season 8 episode 7 - at the very end, Frank speaks at a support meeting about Joe. At the time stamp of 42:12, Frank says ''and as for my oldest, Joe, I miss him every day''. In the same scene he also says that there's 19 months between Joe and Danny. Which means if Danny was older, then Mary would have had to literally have back to back pregnancies with only about 1 month rest between Erin and Joe - I'm not saying that's not possible, but come on - give the woman a break.

4) In 'Secret Arrangements' - season 4 episode 19 - Jamie tells Eddie that he and his sister would sneak downstairs and watch them dance to the song 'Inevitable'. If Joe was younger, shouldn't it have been Joe and Jamie - or Joe, Erin and Jamie. I think this is another indication that Joe is older and he and Danny have both left the house.

5) I found this on tvfanatic.com in regards to 'Reagan Vs. Reagan' - season 2 episode 17 - :

... and Jamie wondered what everyone else had to complain about, as he was the one who was always stuck in between the two in the car as they fought.

The actual quote that Jamie said to Frank is: ''You didn't have to ride between them on car rides - you got to drive.''

So where was Joe? As oldest, he'd get the rights to the front seat - and the radio rights to drown out the noise of the fighting in the backseat. I'm going with the assumption that Frank owned a type of station wagon, which has a bench seat in the front. So Frank, Joe and Mary in the front seat, and poor little Jamie in the backseat with Danny and Erin on either side of him.

6) In 'The Brave' - season 8 episode 12 - Erin confesses to Frank that she begged her mother to take the stance of not letting her (Erin) take the exam to become a police officer. That she (Erin) didn't want to disappoint him by not taking it. Ok, for a second, let's say that Joe was younger than Erin - why didn't she try to stop Joe from joining the family business, like she did Jamie? After Erin went to her and said she didn't want to disappoint Frank by not becoming a cop, I can see how she (Mary) would feel like she would need to take that stance with her other children as well, so that they didn't feel pressured into something that they didn't want to do. Now, you could say that she didn't stop Joe because she saw it was something that he wanted to do, and since Jamie was the youngest - and maybe if he wasn't a 100% sure - she pushed him more toward law. That said, I believe that, with Joe being older than Danny, that by the time Erin came to her, both Joe and Danny were already in the family business (whether in the police force or the military - see below, #9). With Jamie being the child right after Erin, it would make sense that she would try to sway him in another direction like his sister. Maybe she felt that Joe and Danny felt pressured into the family business and she didn't do anything to stop it or didn't recognize it; so when Erin came to her, she pushed Frank not to let her (or as Frank put it in the episode: ''she was dead set against you joining''.). Maybe she felt Jamie was being pressured or swayed into the police life, and stepped in on his behalf - whether he wanted or asked her to or not.

7) Joe's badge number is 46808 - but in his picture it's 272 ... 212. I'm assuming the picture is from when he first joined the force and when he got promoted his number changed. I know this isn't 'evidence' as to his age, but it is a detail about him, so ....

8) In 'Insult to Injury' - season 4 episode 16 - Frank says he made Detective in 3 years, and Danny made it in 3 1/2. It made no mention of Joe, but it made me curious what his timeline was in regards to his service. (See below, #9)

9) {timeline of life} In 'Genetics' - season 7 episode 11 - when Linda and Danny are in bed, she says ''five cops, four ex-military''. Henry, Frank, Danny - the other one in the military has to be Joe, since Erin and Jamie weren't. It would also account for Joe's timeline. If you take the year he was born and add 18 years for school, then you'd get the year 1995 as the year he graduated. Then work backwards - he died in 2009, subtract the years he had on the force (10 years) you get 1999. So there's 4 unaccounted years between him graduating in 1995 and him joining the police force in 1999. Now those 4 unaccounted years my not have all been in the military (like, if he was in the military for 2 years, a probationary officer for one, and another year on the force as something else, and then going to the warrant squad) but I'm going to go with the 4 years in the military; after typing in 'how long is a tour in the military', Wikipedia came back with this:

A general tour of duty for soldiers comprises service that can last from half a year to four years. Generally, duties that last longer than two years are eligible to receive medals of merit related to their service.

So, I'm figuring 4 years for the military, and just saying that the 10 years he spent on the police force was a total time instead of just on the Warrant Squad. Which leaves me with this:

Born - 1977  
Graduated High School - 1995  
Military - 1995/1999  
Police - 1999/2009  
Died 2009

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATE 4/25/2019:  
> This isn't something about Joe, but it does tie into Jamie's timeline. In season 3 episode 4 ''Scorched Earth'', during an argument between Erin and Jamie, Erin says, ''Or have you forgotten your three years of law school?''. So he graduated from Harvard in 2007, minus those 3 years and you get 2004, subtract 18 years from that and that gives us a birth year of 1986. Round-abouts.


End file.
